That is not to say that there are not medications or medical problems that do lead to weight gain. That is another problem entirely. For this article, I’m focusing rather on the mindset that weight gain is inevitable at certain stages of our lives. Once you get past this mindset it is much easier to start developing a solution and when you have a heads up about the potential to gain weight, you will have all the tools you need to avoid it.

Why not start with the freshman 15? It is quite common for students to put on weight once they leave home and have to make their own food choices. Many students are suddenly presented with numerous fast food options at the cafeteria and when they are pressed for time or stressed it is all too easy to make a bad food decision. Instead of reaching for that piece of pizza, it is important to recognize this behavior and take steps prevent it. While much of this is dependent on the emphasis that is placed on healthy food at home, students can make their own choices once they realize the damage they can do to their health by eating the wrong kinds of food.

Menopause is another major problem for women and in some cases it is more difficult to avoid gaining weight during this period of your life. However with care and diet adjustment it is possible to avoid gaining weight while you are going through menopause. The key is understanding how many calories your body needs at this point. Many of us do not realize that as we age, our caloric needs decrease. Speak with your doctor about your concerns of menopausal weight gain and determine how many calories you actually do need.

Last up is middle-age spread. If left unchecked, you can easily gain weight during middle-age, especially as you become less active. Once again we are dealing with the fact that our caloric needs change as we age and we may not be getting enough exercise during this stage in our lives. By recognizing those early on you can take steps to prevent middle-age spread and that is a lot easier than trying to fix it once it has occurred.

There is a lot to be said for having a healthy diet plan and exercise plan no matter how old you are. Take the time to listen to your body and learn what it needs. No one needs to be a slave to weight gain, and with proper care and attention it is possible to avoid so-called inevitable weight gain.

The following is a guest post from ToughMoneyLove.com. You can subscribe to his RSS feed here.

I am 57 years old. I am 6 feet tall. In high school and college, my weight fluctuated between 165 and 170 pounds. I am careful with my money.

But……

On January 16, 2008 I weighed 218 pounds. I work in an office (I am a patent attorney) and was spending on average $7.50 per day eating lunch out. I owned three pair of pants that I could barely squeeze into. Hundreds of dollars of pants and suits hung in my closet – neglected – because they no longer fit. I couldn’t stand to look at all of my belly fat in the mirror any more. I kept reading that abdominal fat is a strong marker for bad health in the second half of your life.

I had enough. I decided on that day that the weight had to go. I set a goal of weighing 175 pounds on May 31, 2008, the unofficial beginning of summer. Being a technology guy, I also decided that I needed a highly structured, mathematically sound plan for getting there.

My 1500 Calorie Eating Plan

I did some research and learned that for an average person, a 3500 calorie consumption deficit will result in a loss of one pound of body weight. I found a free website, Fitday, that allowed me to enter in my weight loss goal. It then calculated and tracked how much weight per week I had to lose to reach that goal. I determined that I could reach my goal by a combination of a reasonable amount of exercise and eating no more than 1500 calories per day.

Fitday had other important helpful features. After entering in my personal data and activities, Fitday calculated my daily baseline caloric expenditures. It added extra calories burned each day based on the specific exercise (walking, weight-lifting) and other activities (yard word, household maintenance, etc.) that I selected from pull down lists. As I weighed myself each morning and entered that weight into Fitday, it re-updated what I needed to do to reach my goal.

Fitday has an extensive built in database of food items with nutrition data. You can also enter and save custom food items if you can’t find them in the database. All of this data is saved online so that you can access it from any internet-connected computer. That is important. Between January 16 and May 31, not a single morsel of food passed my lips without being entered in Fitday. No cheating. None. That required easy access to my data which Fitday provided.

What and How I Ate

My basic rule was this: I ate until Fitday said I had eaten 1500 calories that day. Then I stopped. During the 136 days, I went over 1500 calories approximately 6 times but my worst day was only 1780 calories. Did I eat out? Yes – I even traveled to my nephew’s wedding out of town – but I managed to eat to my calorie goal. On the few days I went over, I either did extra cardio that day or cut back on the eating the next day.

It is not easy for a 6 foot baby boomer to limit himself to 1500 calories and not feel like he is starving. What I did to handle that was to eat something every 2-3 hours during the day with each little meal in the 150-300 calorie range. The work part of the day was critical because believe me it is hard to concentrate on the job if you are starving.

My typical workday eating went like this:

• Breakfast: – fat free cottage cheese with fruit or 1 cup Kashi GoLean Crunch cereal or 6 oz. cup fat free fruit yogurt.
• Morning snack: – 1 ounce raw almonds (very healthy for guys my age and an awesome appetite killer).
• Lunch: – 19 oz. can of Healthy Request Chunky Soup (gotta be chunky or you will not feel full) or 1 can tuna plus a few multigrain, high fiber crackers.
• Afternoon snack: – Balance Gold protein bar (the caramel nut blast is great) or Trail Mix fruit and nut bar
• Dinner: – Grilled chicken breast/grilled fish plus a salad with low fat dressing or a steamed vegetable High fiber bread (one serving)
• Evening snack: – Red grapes or raw cut carrots/broccoli and a low fat dip or a handful of Kashi GoLean Crunch
• Bedtime Dessert: – Fruit popsicle

This routine kept me satisfied and within my 1500 calorie goal. I was surprised about not being hungry but it worked.

My Exercise Plan

I did cardio almost everyday. Usually this was 30 minutes on a treadmill, 4 MPH at varying elevations of 4 to 8 degrees. (Education bonus benefit: I usually did this first thing in the morning while watching the History Channel. I learned a lot.)

I also did circuit training (upper body, lower body, core) three days per week at the local public recreation center, 30 minutes each day with stretching after.

That’s it.

My Money Savings

My work lunch routine cost me about $2.00/day compared to the $7.50 I was spending each day eating out. I ate lunch out a few days (but I didn’t eat much). Over the 136 days of my plan, I saved $5.50 per day over 96 workdays, for a total of $528.00. Not bad. I am still eating soup and tuna for lunch each day. I enjoy visualizing five dollar bills in my head when I do that.

The Results

I actually hit my 175 pound goal on May 13. I decided to keep going because there was still some loose stuff around my midsection that I did not like. I went down to 166 pounds. The loose stuff was still there so I figured that is extra skin that is not going away. (No lipo for me!) I went off the diet. Now I watch what I eat. I probably average 2500 calories per day. I still weigh myself everyday. My weight fluctuates between 166 and 169. That’s where I intend to keep it.

Other benefits: I am sleeping much better. My nasal allergies seemed to have disappeared. (Can’t figure that one out but I am not complaining.) My energy levels in the evening and weekends are way up. Unfortunately, I still don’t have a lot of clothes that fit me because my waist is now a 32. All of my old clothes were 34. I’m not complaining about that either.

My wife compliments me. (‘Nuf said about that.)

My 40 year high school reunion is next summer. I have challenged some of my high school buddies to match me. I hope they do.

If you want to contact me about what I did, or learn some hard truth about money and personal finance, you can find me at ToughMoneyLove.com. You can also subscribe to my RSS feed here.

Despite the fact that most of us understand that losing weight is the product of fewer calories in and more calories burned, it doesn’t mean that we don’t wish weight loss came in an easy pill form. Alli is one of the first over-the-counter medications for weight loss that has been approved by the FDA. As always discuss this pill with your doctor before taking it to ensure safety. Truth be told, I thought about taking it 18 months ago when news of it’s approval came out.

What is Alli

Alli isn’t a completely new face on the market. It’s a new brand name for a low dose treatment of Xenical, which is a prescription medication. By reducing the amount of Xenical in each pill, the new formula was approved for sale without a prescription. Since so many people have experienced significant weight loss with Xenical, the availability of Alli was big news.

Potential Alli Results

While it is not a magic pill, the results for those taking Alli have been very good so far. When combined with a low calorie diet and exercise plan, those taking the pill have the potential to lose 50% more weight than those that do not take the pill, according to GlaxoSmithKline. This is can be pretty significant for those who have a lot of weight to lose. For those that are frustrated with their seeming inability to lose weight, this may be a great tool to add to your arsenal.

Recommended Use of Alli

The manufacturer recommends taking three 60 mg pills a day, each one with a meal. Each meal should be composed of less than 15% fat. This may be difficult for a lot of people however, especially if they are not used to reading labels or paying attention to the fat grams in their food. Calculating may be tough for some, and this may be the biggest barrier to the pills acceptance.

How Alli Works

The main premise behind the pill is that it blocks the absorption of fat, and thus calories, in approximately 25% of the food you eat. For example, if you are eating 1200 calories and taking this pill, it would be similar to actually eating 900 calories. The fat that is not absorbed by your body is then eliminated through the natural process.

Alli Side Effects

As with Xenical, this “natural process” can be a problem. Common side effects are listed as uncontrolled urination and bowel movements. Since the dosage is still pretty high with Alli, these side effects are still present. It is a good idea to still check with your doctor to see if you need to adjust your dosage before taking the pill. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not go through life worrying about uncontrollable urination or bowel movements, so it is vital to read the instructions carefully and make sure that you follow them to the letter.

…The way they evaluate weight loss seems flawed. Everyone has a healthy minimum weight. The doctors wouldn’t allow a 90lb woman to continue to lose weight for example (unless she was really short). More than likely, they would probably stop her from dropping under 110. Watch Ali, this year’s winner end up around 120 pounds is pretty much a good range. That means she had a “limit” that depended on where she entered the contest. If she entered at 200 pounds that limit would be about a 45% before she hit the 110 mark, not enough to win the competition this year without going to the unhealthy site.

And what of the men? I believe they allow some men to start at the 400 pound weight. One could imagine that a healthy weight for a guy could be 170. We could argue that it’s much lower – Bernie weighed around 153 at the end this year and looked great. If we use that 170 number, the 400 pound man’s limit would have the potential of 57% weight loss. It seems like those who start out the worse have the potential to do much better.

So what’s the solution? I’m not sure I know. Perhaps you take into body fat measurements? That’s difficult as well because women are supposed to have more body fat than men. Maybe you can do that, but crown a King and Queen Biggest Loser?

In the end, I’m being nit-picky. It seems like all the contestants lost a lot of weight, while inspiring many viewers to do the same. That’s a really the point right?

It made me stop and think about all the food that I eat that isn’t necessarily good. At 175 pounds, I’m not killing myself to the same extent as the contestants on The Bigger Loser. However, I do need to do a better job monitoring what goes in my body.

I’m getting a little motivation from watching The Biggest Loser and the gladiators on the American Gladiators

Lifehacker presents a solid list of weight loss ideas. I’m going to check out their VB script to track your weight with Excel.

Internet Duct Tape has these 21 ideas for losing weight.

The disappointing part of the study is that it didn’t test any specific aspect of being on a diet. It simply tested how people spend money while they were preoccupied with other thoughts. Those other thoughts may or may not be diet related.

How can you do be on a diet and save money at the same time? From the study, the scientists didn’t tell people that how they spent money was part of the test. Thus the result was to test the subconscious effect of spending money. However, you are aware of this connection now. If you think a bit about saving money while on your diet, you may be able to break that subconscious connection.